Laura Balzer

About

Dr. Laura B. Balzer is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Her expertise includes causal inference, machine learning, and messy real-world data. Her work addresses challenges in the design and analysis of both randomized trials and observational studies, including novel approaches for semi-parametric inference, differential measurement, and complex dependence. Dr. Balzer's research is motivated by ongoing collaborations in Uganda and Kenya, where she serves as the Primary Statistician for several studies aiming to eliminate HIV and improve community health in rural East Africa. Her overall goal is to ensure that methodological advances in academia translate into real-world impact, informed by cross-disciplinary, real-world problems.

Research topics

• Environmental health
• Medicine
• Computer Science
• Immunology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Data science
• Geography
• Psychology
• Family medicine

Selected publications

• Dynamic choice HIV prevention with cabotegravir long-acting injectable in rural Uganda and Kenya: a randomised trial extension

  The Lancet HIV · 2024-10-09 · 36 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: HIV infections are ongoing globally despite efficacious biomedical prevention options. We sought to determine whether an HIV prevention package providing choice of daily pills or long-acting injectable cabotegravir and opportunities to change prevention options could increase biomedical prevention coverage and reduce new HIV infections. METHODS: This study was an extension of three randomised trials that used SEARCH dynamic choice HIV prevention to recruit adults (aged ≥15 years) at…

  PublisherDOI

• Randomized Trial of Dynamic Choice HIV Prevention at Antenatal and Postnatal Care Clinics in Rural Uganda and Kenya

  JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes · 2024-03-11 · 21 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Pregnant and postpartum women in Sub-Saharan Africa are at high risk of HIV acquisition. We evaluated a person-centered dynamic choice intervention for HIV prevention (DCP) among women attending antenatal and postnatal care. SETTING: Rural Kenya and Uganda. METHODS: Women (aged 15 years or older) at risk of HIV acquisition seen at antenatal and postnatal care clinics were individually randomized to DCP vs. standard of care (SEARCH; NCT04810650). The DCP intervention included structur…

  PublisherDOI

• Adaptive selection of the optimal strategy to improve precision and power in randomized trials

  Biometrics · 2024-01-29 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Benkeser et al. demonstrate how adjustment for baseline covariates in randomized trials can meaningfully improve precision for a variety of outcome types. Their findings build on a long history, starting in 1932 with R.A. Fisher and including more recent endorsements by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. Here, we address an important practical consideration: how to select the adjustment approach-which variables and in which form-to maximize precision, while…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Community health worker–facilitated telehealth for moderate–severe hypertension care in Kenya and Uganda: A randomized controlled trial

  PLoS Medicine · 2025-06-05 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Hypertension is underdiagnosed and undertreated in sub-Saharan Africa. Improving hypertension treatment within primary health centers can improve cardiovascular disease outcomes; however, individuals with moderate-severe hypertension face additional barriers to care, including the need for frequent clinic visits to titrate medications. We conducted a pilot study to test whether a clinician-driven, community health worker (CHW)-facilitated telehealth intervention would improve hyperte…

  PublisherDOI

• Cost-effectiveness of leveraging existing HIV primary health systems and community health workers for hypertension screening and treatment in Africa: An individual-based modeling study

  PLoS Medicine · 2025-01-24 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality is increasing in Africa, largely due to undiagnosed and untreated hypertension. Approaches that leverage existing primary health systems could improve hypertension treatment and reduce CVD, but cost-effectiveness is unknown. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of population-level hypertension screening and implementation of chronic care clinics across eastern, southern, central, and western Africa. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducte…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Moses R. Kamya

  Makerere University

  116 shared

• Diane V. Havlir

  University of California, San Francisco

  101 shared

• Gabriel Chamie

  University of California, San Francisco

  86 shared

• Maya Petersen

  80 shared

• Edwin D. Charlebois

  University of California, San Francisco

  72 shared

• Jane Kabami

  University Research Co (United States)

  65 shared

• Tamara D. Clark

  Nationwide Children's Hospital

  46 shared

• James Ayieko

  Kenya Medical Research Institute

  46 shared

Similar researchers at University of California, Berkeley

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